and there's still a lot in iTunes that are not yet DRM-free and are only 128kbps, so you wanna be careful.

Personally, I reckon 256 is perfectly acceptable -- indeed, I'm happy with anything from 192 and higher -- but if you want "maximum experience" you're best bet is to buy the CD and rip it at a high bit rate.

That's assuming you're using iTunes 7. Things might have got shifted around in iTunes 8, but if you search through Preferences or through any dialogue boxes that pop up when importing, etc., you should be able to find your way through.

a shitty quality mp3 (< 320) and a higher quality one/cd is more evident on a decent stereo setup. on your £50 argos job you might not notice any difference, but if you try to listen to a 128 rip on a decent system you'll weep with sadness.

and won't download (knowingly) anything less than 160 (hello In Rainbows...). Anything below 160 I hear the compression in (specifically in highhat sounds) and much above is wasting space on an mp3 player or harddrive. If I want to listen to music at maximum quality I bung the CD on, but for going out and about, 192 on my iPod is just dandy. I listen to both CDs and mp3s on my computer as it's hooked up to a home theatre amp and decent speakers/woofer.

a waste of hard drive space. Read up on ripping MP3s in V0 (which is high quality variable bitrate), much smaller and the difference, if any, is negligable. Don't rip in Itunes either if you want good quality, get EAC or CDex - there's quite a few userguides if you look on google.

As it was brought up earlier, Emusic don't go up to 320kps. I've never had any problems with the quality of their downloads though.